JB_113_007.xml

Title: [1822 May 11 Under the denomination]

Description: 1822 May 11

Under the denomination of the supreme operative power are /come/ contained 1. the

supreme legislative: 2. the supreme executive

The supreme executive is so termed only with reference to such branches of

executive power as are subordinate to it. It is itself necessarily subordinate

to the supreme legislative: it is exercised by the giving execution and effect

to such expressions of will as have been manifested by the supreme legislative

Under the denomination of the supreme Executive power are contained the supreme

Administrative power and the supreme Judicial or say Judicative power

The functions of the Administrative power consist in the disposing of such

things and such personal services as are placed at its disposal by the

legislative power in cases where no contestation in form has place concerning

the matter in which the operations in question shall be performed

The function of the Judicial power consists in the disposal of all things and all

persons and personal services in case of contestation, in conformity to the will

declared or presumed of those by whom the supreme legislative power is

exercised.

The functions /operations/ of the supreme legislative power may be distinguished

into ordinary and extraordinary: extraordinary meaning /comprehending/ those by

which on the score of imputed delinquency it exercises its power over the

possessors of supreme executive power taken in the aggregate or in either of its

branches as above.

JB_106_337.xml

Title: [1823. Greece. J.B. Observations on]

Description: 1823.

Greece. J.B. Observations on particular Articles

?. III Greek points unapt

Now then as to the Operative department, it is by the necessity of the case that it stands divided as above, into the two departments stiled the legislative and the Executive Not that of these two departments the Executive is to be understood as being coordinate with the legislative any more than the legislative alone or the legislative and the Executive taken together are to be regarded as coordinate with the Constitutive. No, it is matter of absolute necessity that, with reference to one of them, namely the legislative, the other namely the Executive should be subordinate. The /For the/ legislative department being established, why is it that any part of the business of the Operative department is committed to any functionary or set of functionaries other than those by which that of the legislative department is to be executed /done/? Is it that the functionaries employed in the legislative department may find in another department a man or set of men by whom controul or obstruction in any shape may in any event be opposed to their power? a man or set of men by whom the giving execution and effect to any will, which they have concurred in the formation of, may be subjected to frustration or even to delay? No such thing. The reason why that which is taken out of their hands, is accordingly taken out of their hands is - or at any rate the only reason on which its being so can be justified, is - simply this: namely that when the business, turned over, and as it were turned down, to the Executive department has, the whole of it, been taken out of their hands as much is left in their hands as it is physically speaking, supposing due attention paid to it, possible for them to go through indeed, as in the American United States experience has amply shewn, more than they do or can go through without continually subjecting large portions of it to a delay by which serious inconvenience, in particular and assignable shapes, is continually produced, as also the ultimate frustration of many a useful design, for want of the faculty of applying to it that portion of time, at the expiration of which, its original feasibility deserted it. In the Executive department of that same Government Look to the four Secretaries of State acting immediately under the President. See them staggering, each of them, under the load of the business, which is continually pouring in upon their shoulders. This done, conceive the aggregate mass of their respective businesses added to the mass of business at present executed by the legislative assembly stiled the Congress. Say then whether the mere division of the load of business, without any such design as that of dividing power between two sets of conflicting functionaries with opposite interests and consequently opposite wills, has not been the true and only beneficial effect which has been experienced, from these arrangements at least by which the business of the Executive department has been placed in hands different from those which stand charged with the business of the legislative.

JB_021_309.xml

Title: [1823. Feb. 22. Greece. J.B. to Greek Legislators]

Description: 1823. Feb. 22. Greece. J.B. to Greek Legislators Dependence strict

Legislators! let not words /names/ © let not vulgar errors deceive you Not in

independence, but in dependence, so it be rightly placed, is the great security

for good government. Dependence, so it be rightly placed, can not be too strict

As for independence supposing it to exist which it does not, it is anarchy.

Dependence as it is your bounden duty, so is it your only true glory ©

dependence on your Constituents: on that dependence depends /proportioned/ to

its strictness is/ your probity. Not the [...?] but the [...?] of their will

should be yours If to you it belongs to make a will for them, it is only because

it is out of their power to come together in such sort as upon each occasion to

form a will for themselves.

Strict and Entire as your dependence should be on the will of these your

masters, so should be dependence of the Executive power wheresoever /in

whatsoever hands/ lodged on your legislative on you, the possessors of the

legislative. So should the dependence of all local legislative bodies on your's

the universal one. So throughout the Executive department should be the

dependence of every /each/ inferior on every superior grade: the stricter the

dependence of all upon you and thence through you upon your masters, upon the

common masters of you all. Such is that chain of service by which and by which

alone universal and perfect freedom is constituted.